The expanding network of digital cellular and personal communication devices (PCS), has created a solid foundation for providing various wireless services. Presently, wireless services are limited to basic telephone services, Short Message Service (SMS), paging, and Internet services. SMS is already available to most subscribers of cellular phones. As cellular phones become ubiquitous, and their processing power and memory increases, additional features are being added to the wireless telephones.
Some systems have added gaming capabilities to wireless telephones. However, most of these systems do not include interactive wireless capabilities. Currently, there are only a few systems that have attempted to implement interactive wireless gaming. One such system is described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,738,583 to Nelson R. Comas. However, the system of the '583 Patent requires special hardware to implement the invention described in the patent. Similarly, the U.S. Pat. No. 5,999,808 to Christoph Karl LaDue, requires special hardware for “transmitting application specific messages over a cellular radio system control channels and switches.”
Accordingly, what is needed are improved systems, apparatus, and methods for allowing interactive wireless gaming using existing wireless telephone devices, without the need for any specialized hardware.